Interview with Samantha Armytage, Sunrise

Samantha Armytage: And, we are joined by Tourism Minister Dan Tehan. Minister, good morning to you. Tourism operators say they’re looking at job losses and facing closures on a wide scale in just a few weeks’ time. What do you say to them?

Dan Tehan: Well, we’re consulting with them, we’re working with them. We want to offer them support post JobKeeper, and we’ll be doing everything we can to get Australians travelling to the wonderful destinations we have right across this world. And, not only do we want Australians travelling across our wonderful nation, we want them spending like they’ve never spent before.

Armytage: Okay. Well, it seems that people are travelling because it’s hard to get a booking in the country and regional areas, but the cities are in trouble. Are you working with the Treasurer right now? The Treasurer says JobKeeper won’t be extended, but are you working with him to offer some kind of ongoing financial support to this tourism sector?

Tehan: Yes, we are and not only that, on Thursday last week we launched a wonderful campaign telling people to get back to our cities and make sure they visit our cities, and with the football season starting again there’s no better time to get back to our cities. So, we’re going to be encouraging people to travel right across the nation to our wonderful destinations in regional and rural Australia, to our cities, and asking people to spend like you do overseas here in Australia. Get your money out of your wallet and spend like you would overseas. That’s the best thing that we can all do for our tourism industry.

Armytage: I’m laughing Minister because I have memories of spending. You do get your credit card statement when you get home from being overseas, and go, ‘I paid that for what?’ So, okay, we’ve all been there. Let’s do it. Minister, thanks for your time today. We wish you well on this.

Tehan: Pleasure.